


Remnants of Humanity

by Ticklishanimeboysaremylife



Category: Ender's Game - All Media Types
Genre: Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Other, Tickle Fights, Tickle fic, Tickling, ender finally getting to be the kid he needs to be, platonic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-02
Updated: 2021-02-02
Packaged: 2021-03-13 19:28:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,897
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29158905
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ticklishanimeboysaremylife/pseuds/Ticklishanimeboysaremylife
Summary: Valentine remembers something from Ender’s past and shows him just how much humanity he still has left.
Kudos: 5





	Remnants of Humanity

Ender’s legs dangled off the precipice of the dock, the edges of his toes flirting with the water. It wasn’t the same as Earth, but it was such a close approximation that his chest throbbed with long forgotten memories. He had been here for three years now, slowly cultivating the planet into something livable. Shakespeare had soon grown to be a land quite like any other, with people who fought and laughed and died all the same as they had on Earth. There were a few key differences, of course. Here there was no Peter. Here he wasn’t responsible for the death of an entire species. Here he didn’t have to be a killer.

He had come to the lake on a whim, on the way back from a walk with Valentine. He had explained that he only needed to check up on something back at the base, but they both knew that was bullshit.

In all fairness, it did take her quite a bit of time to finally track him down. By the time she had, he had almost lulled himself into a vague imitation of sleep. Not completely. Never completely. Still, she did manage to startle him when she called out, “So this is where you’ve been going.”

Ender cursed his jump. He hadn’t realized the effect peace would have on him and he wasn’t sure if he liked it. Before, sneaking up on him would have been a laughable concept; now it was a common reality.

“I like it here,” he answered as she sat beside him. Her feet couldn’t reach the water. There had been a time, long ago, when she had towered over him. Not anymore.

“Because it reminds you of Earth?”

Her voice was gentle, familiar. He didn’t answer; he didn’t need to. Valentine often knew his thoughts before he even knew them himself.

Instead, he said, “Do you think I can ever get it back?”

“Get what back?”

“Childhood.” He was fourteen now and already mostly an adult. He hadn’t been a child since he was three. “Getting to be a real person instead of a commander. Playing games and worrying about school, eating an entire cake and then throwing up afterwards. Do you think I could be like them?” He pointed across the lake, to a group of children who laughed and stumbled through the grass, pushing each other out of the way as they raced after some object.

Valentine watched them too and, like he knew she would, shook her head. “No. Childhood is a concept we were never allowed to believe. Once you learn what it’s like to be an adult you can never go back.”

Ender nodded. He had always known that, but it made him feel better to hear the words out of her mouth. He glanced back over the lake and the two fell back into an almost peaceful silence.

Valentine examined him. He had grown so much since that day eight years ago when Graff had first shown up on their doorstep. His arms and legs were gangly and long with corded muscle, and the bulk of his chest was evident underneath his shirt. Even his hair, which back then had been overgrown with soft curls, was now cut back into a neat shave. Technically speaking, he could have grown it out long if he wanted to, but Ender had confessed that he liked having it out of the way; it was a constant that he could always rely on.

Of all the changes, the most apparent was in his face. His eyes were no longer wide with childlike wonder. Now they held all the pain of the universe in them, pain he had caused, pain he had felt, pain he had fought to prevent. There was a profound sadness reflected in it, but it was sadness he had already felt long ago and accepted. Now it lived with him, a reminder of everything he had been forced to become. There were no words she could say that would change that.

She reached out and placed a hand on his knee as well, a simple fragment of human touch to remind him that he was still just that—human. He didn’t move away or even show that he acknowledged her touch, and she took that as a sign of acceptance. She could feel the muscle and bone underneath her fingertips, all the different parts that made up the enigma that was Ender.

She was reminded then of a moment long ago, of a different lake and a different Ender, of her hand on his same knee. It had been so long since then, that she wasn’t sure if he even remembered. It was that memory that prompted her to do what she did next, hoping against everything that it would work this time.

Suddenly and without warning she squeezed her hand right above the bone of his knee. Last time she had done this Ender had caught her. This time he jumped, his leg jerking in her grasp.

His head snapped to look at her, their eyes locking for several, tense seconds. Then he glanced away and coughed, staring at the water. “Oh. Right. I almost forgot I was ticklish.”

Ender Wiggin, the war hero, ticklish. The idea was ridiculous even as she thought it. Who would believe her if she told them? Who would be brave enough to try?

Watching him to make sure it was okay, Valentine squeezed once more. Ender jumped again, seemingly unable to prevent his reactions. A smile slowly, unwillingly crept onto his features. He still wasn’t stopping her.

“I won’t, if you don’t want me to,” she assured him, giving him an out, as well as an oppurtunity he hadn’t been given since he was still living at home; an oppurtunity to be vulnerable once more.

When he didn’t say anything she started to take her hand away, disappointed. The second her hand left his knee, however, he reached out suddenly and grasped her wrist, placing it back where it had been. He wouldn’t meet her eyes and he continued not to speak, but she could read the answers in his face. He needed this; that much was obvious.

He let go of her hand after a moment, after he could see that she had understood his unspoken wishes, and waited for the inevitable. One squeeze. Two. A smile, wobbling. Three. A muffled noise that almost resembled laughter, not that anybody would be so bold to assume so. Four. Then she moved her fingers up slightly, using her thumb and forefinger to dig into the sensitive bundle of nerves contained there.

Ender snorted. They both paused at the noise, shocked by the sound of Ender Wiggin laughing. The sound was stilted and awkward, unaccustomed to being in use, but the potential was there. It was in that moment that Valentine made up her mind to make up for lost time, and dug in with real vigor this time.

Both hands now, both knees, and endless squeezes and pinches that had Ender nearly flying off the dock. All manner of noises escaped him now, chuckles and squeaks and snorts from before, each one adding an extra year onto her life. The sound of his laughter, loud and carefree, quickly became addicting. She discovered that spidering her nails over his kneecaps caused him to giggle, something she had never known before because Ender had never opted to stay still for this long. Even now, his legs shook and jittered underneath her touch, his body’s attempt to save himself from the sensation.

“W-Wahahait!” he cried when she went for his torso, hands colliding with his sides. She knew he didn’t mean it, otherwise he would be stopping her right now. Ender didn’t let anyone do anything to him that he didn’t want. It was almost a reassuring quality about him, something she could always count on. She climbed her fingers up his sides, smiling at the way he crumpled underneath her.

“I can’t believe you’re still this ticklish,” she commented, feeling brave. There was always a moment of hesitation now when she talked with him, where she couldn’t be sure if she was speaking with her brother or to the commander of the IF fleet. There was no question in that moment, however, about who Ender was. “I thought all that soldier training might have made you immune.”

Ender fall back against the dock, a victim to her playful assault. “Wehehe w-weheheren’t trahahained agahahahahainst t-tihihickling!” His legs curled up defensively, but his arms flailed about wildly in the air as he struggled to keep himself from stopping her.

“A shame. Could you imagine if the enemy got ahold of this information?” Valentine teased, poking his stomach relentlessly. Ender squeaked, both hands shooting down before coming back up to cover his face. “You would be doomed for sure.”

“I-I wohohould nehever l-lehet thehem get that clohohose!” Ender insisted, grinning underneath his hands.

“And if they did?” She squeezed his hip, chuckling at his resulting spasm. “What would you do then? What brilliant counter-strategy would you employ, oh great war hero?”

Ender’s hands came down to grab her wrists, the flood of ticklish sensations too much for him to bear. “I-I wohould launch a cohounterattack!”

She furrowed her eyebrows, trying to grab her hands back. “What do you mean—ahaha, Ender, nohoho!”

Valentine squealed as Ender’s hands flew in devious patterns all over her torso, squeezing her hips and sides and vibrating fingers into her ribs. It had been too long to since she too had experienced such a simple thing as tickling, aside from the teasing poke from Peter on occasion. It certainly wasn’t the same as this. She found that she was far more sensitive than she remembered, and instantly collapsed on the ground, weakly batting away his hands.

“W-Wahahait, thihihis ihihihisn’t fahahahair!” she insisted, bursting into giggles as Ender scribbled fingers all over her stomach. “Y-Yohohou weheheren’t suhuhupossed to fight back!”

“Always expect the unexpected,” he reminded her, a smirk playing at his lips that spoke of his victory, and she quickly dissolved into laughter and squirming once more.

It was nearing late evening by the time the two finally backed off of each other; though Ender had eventually let her go, she had turned it quickly back on him and the night had become a series of quick pokes and teasing jabs. They lay side-by-side on the dock afterwards, watching as the sky glittered with the approach of stars. Night on Shakespeare had been strange at first, as the star patterns here were completely different from Earth. Ender had created his own constellations for them in his mind. He never wrote them down or told anyone, leaving them as one of the few leftover things he kept for himself.

“Thank you,” he said after a beat of silence. “I think I needed that more than I knew.”

He felt a hand on his shoulder and glanced over to see Valentine smiling at him. “Anytime. It’s nice to see you laugh after…”

She didn’t finish, but the rest of the sentence was implied. After everything that happened to you. Ender was grateful too. He closed his eyes and allowed himself to drift off to sleep in the presence of another person for the first time in almost three years.

**Author's Note:**

> Read through Ender’s Game recently, and holy fuck is that book ever taking over my life. Decided to write something for it because the characters were so great and deserve to have some tk content for them!  
> You can find me at my tumblr: https://happyandticklish.tumblr.com/


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